"Goals achieved"
The figures are in: 56,000 tickets sold; over 150,000 spectators; 650 screenings of 169 films on 23 screens; 480,000 visitors at the Villaggio and the festival; 6,837 accredited professionals, of which 2,426 were journalists (578 of which were foreign); and 16,000 children and adolescents and 78 schools involved in the Alice section. In summing up the festival’s opening edition, RomeFilmFest President Goffredo Bettini expressed satisfaction over the numbers.
“We achieved the three goals we set ourselves: to bring audiences closer to cinema, to give room and visibility to films that otherwise would not reach wide audiences, and the winners show that success in that as well. New talent was established, new directors and new films”. The third goal was to boost the city’s economy, “even though it’s still too early to give out any figures on this,” he added”.
“It truly was a ‘festa’, even if it was marked by the mourning of a tragic event, the Metro accident, and we proved that a great Venice Film Festival and a great RomeFilmFest can both exist ", said Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, referring to past controversy with the Venice festival. “We discussed the dates of this first edition with producers and distributors and we will discuss next year’s dates with the film world as well. This is not a political decision”.
(Translated from Italian)
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